1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a toner replenishing apparatus for replenishing toner to a developing device for developing a latent image with use of a developer containing toner, and to an image forming apparatus having the toner replenishing apparatus, for example, a copying machine, a printer, and a facsimile apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
In an image forming apparatus, instead of replenishment of toner in a toner hopper disposed within a developing device from a toner bottle, replacement of an empty toner replenishing container with a new one has come to be the favored method of toner replenishment because of its advantage of protecting user's hands from being contaminated by toner.
There are known two types of image forming apparatuses having attached thereto a removable toner replenishing container: an image forming apparatus that adopts a method for removing its toner replenishing container by opening a top cover of the apparatus main body; and an image forming apparatus that adopts a method for removing its toner replenishing container by opening a front cover of the apparatus main body. In constructing an image forming apparatus in which an expendable component is replaced with a new one by a user on his/her own, the former type is superior to the latter type from the standpoints of easiness in looking in the apparatus main body, easiness in replacing expendable components, and easiness in cleaning, etc.
In the image forming apparatus of the former type, the toner replenishing container needs to be lifted up for its removal from the upper part of the apparatus main body. In order to facilitate the removal of the toner replenishing container from the image forming apparatus main body, some contrivance to obtain an easy-to-hold toner replenishing container has been made such as, for example, as disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication JP-A 9-329953 (1997) (refer to page 3, FIG. 2), placement of a grip on the upper part of the toner replenishing container and widening of a space around the toner replenishing container.
However, in a case where, as disclosed in JP-A 9-329953, a grip is attached to the upper part of the toner replenishing container or a space around the toner replenishing container is widened, a larger room is required for housing the toner replenishing container, which gives rise to a problem of an increase in the size of the image forming apparatus. Meanwhile, in a case where the capacity of the toner replenishing container is reduced to achieve downsizing of the image forming apparatus, the number of toner-replenishing-container replacement is increased, which gives rise to a problem of wasting user's time.
In a color image forming apparatus in which are housed a plurality of toner replenishing containers, each of the toner replenishing containers needs to be housed in a narrow space to achieve miniaturization. Therefore, restrictions are placed on the capacity of the toner replenishing container. In such a color image forming apparatus, if, as disclosed in JP-A 9-329953, a grip is attached to the upper part of the toner replenishing container or a space around the toner replenishing container is widened, there arises a problem that severer restrictions need to be imposed on the capacity of the toner replenishing container.